


Coming Home to You

by Ultra



Category: The Big Bang Theory (TV)
Genre: Absence, Alternate Universe, Awards Presentation, Champagne, England (Country), F/M, Future Fic, Getting Back Together, Hugs, Loneliness, Nobel Prize, Secrets, Sharing a Bed, Stockholm, Sunsets, Surprises, Truth or Dare
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-15
Updated: 2013-12-15
Packaged: 2018-07-26 10:48:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7571305
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ultra/pseuds/Ultra
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Years go by, and both Sheldon and Penny grow as people. All they're really missing is each other.</p>
<p>(originally written for tachikoma29 at LJ, as part of Saturnalia 2013).</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

It had become a ritual in Penny’s life since that first year after she left Pasadena. Up to then, she hadn’t needed the discipline nor ever cared enough to have it. One of the guys kept her informed, whether she liked it or not. After she left it just became a habit, every October, to hop online and find the listing of winners. Once again this particular year she tapped away at her phone, scrolling down to the Physics category, holding her breathe the whole time.

“Oh my God!” she gasped, a bit too loudly considering the public place. “Oh my God!!” she repeated, with further volume.

There probably wasn’t a patron of the bar left that wasn’t staring at her now, and Penny didn’t notice at all. He did it, he finally did it, and there was his name to prove it. This years winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics was Dr Sheldon Lee Cooper, who at this point had so many letters after his name, it looked like an eye chart had been pasted in there!

“Are you quite alright, madam?” asked the barman in his perfect English accent.

“I am... I am so much better than just alright,” Penny grinned, even as tears came to her eyes.

It wasn’t the first time she wished she was back home, even that she wished she had kept in touch better than she did. After so many years, it felt impossible to bridge the gap now. The crying was happy and sad all at the same time, and she waved a hand near her face, trying to keep it at bay. Mascara-streaked cheeks were no-one’s friend, not with the press outside as they always were.

“My, er... A guy I used to know,” she stumbled over her words, “He won a Nobel prize,” she smiled proudly.

Sheldon wasn’t hers to be proud of these days, if he ever was, but that didn’t change the fact that she felt it. He had waited so long for this honour, and had always been so determined to get it. Finally, after all this time, he must be ecstatic. Penny would have paid good money to see what that looked like. A voice in the back of her head reminded her, that if she had kept in touch she would known. Of course, that would have been so much tougher than cutting all ties the way she had, at least, that’s what she always told herself.

“I’d like a bottle of champagne, please,” she told the barman then.

“Certainly, madam. How many glasses?” he checked, reaching for the flutes underneath the bar.

“One... No, two!” Penny corrected herself.

The bartender made no comment, just set the two glasses in front of her, and duly uncorked the champagne. He poured out two drinks, and then left the bottle in an ice bucket beside the customer. Soon he was wandering away to serve other patrons and Penny picked up her glass, still staring at the listing on her cell. She was amazed and elated, at the same time so very sad. Some actresses would’ve hidden it better, but Penny found it next to impossible in this moment to keep any emotions at bay.

“Here’s to you Dr Cooper,” she smiled, looking to the empty stool beside her and the champagne fizzing away on the bar. “You did good,” she added in a whisper, clinking her glass pointlessly against the other and taking a long drink.

“This has to be a crime,” said a voice. “A woman as beautiful as you, drinking alone.”

The strikingly handsome man that had approached her was shaking his head like it was such a shame when he took the stool beside Penny. She wasn’t blind, she saw how good looking he was, but the pick up line could use some work.

“Y’know when they say the old ones are the best?” she said with a wry smile. “Yeah, they lied.”

It was all in good humour, she meant no malice and her supposed suitor didn’t take any offence. He chuckled away at her retort, putting a hand momentarily over his eyes.

“Yeah, not my best attempt,” he admitted. “But what can I say? I was bowled over by the realisation of who I was seeing here, not just a beautiful blonde alone at the bar, but you, the Penny,” he sighed as he stared at her. “When was I ever gonna get this chance again?” he asked, all sparkling blue eyes and easy Aussie charm.

Penny smiled back at him and took another sip of her champagne. She vaguely recognised him, so he was probably a fellow actor, just not one she had met. Trust her to stumble upon the hot Australian whilst in England. Her dating life never had made a lick of sense, so it shouldn’t feel the need to start now, Penny thought to herself. Of course, just recently, that dating life she was considering had been less nonsensical and more non-existent. She got offers, of course she did, some serious from guys on her level, some of the crazier types from fans and such. The truth was, Penny had dated some, but she hadn’t had a serious relationship in years. It wasn’t just her romantic life, there really weren’t even close friends that Penny could rely on either. She had an assistant, in fact she had three. There was her personal trainer, her nutritionist, her life coach. Penny was surrounded by people and doing a job she was supposed to love. Now here was a charming hottie of a guy, telling her she was beautiful, and lay  
ing it on thick. She wouldn’t be so crazy to agree to a date or more, and yet...

“I’m sorry, what?” Penny asked when she realised nameless hunk was clearly waiting for a response she hadn’t given.

“I was just wondering if you were here for the award show?” he checked. “Bogan Nights is up for the international category, so they sent me over. I guess Paradise City made the list too, huh?”

“Ah, yeah. Yes, that’s why I’m here,” nodded Penny, pouring herself another glass of champagne, or at least trying to.

The bottle was taken from her hands all too easily as her would-be date did the honours. He topped up the glass he had taken for his own too, the one Penny had meant for a man that was a million miles away from her life now. She smiled at that particular thought. If Sheldon knew she used ‘million miles’ like that, he’d flip out. No, he wasn’t literally that far from her physically, but in relative terms, he may as well be. 

“Y’know why I bought this, um...?” she asked the man she still couldn’t recall the name of, maybe because she wasn’t trying all that hard to do so, but she left the gap so he could fill in.

“Brent,” he prompted at which she nodded once and repeated for politeness sake.

“Brent, I bought this bottle of champagne because a guy I used to know - a really, really smart guy - that I used to be able to call a friend, he made it onto a list too,” she smiled. “He’s won himself a Nobel prize, just like he always told me he would.”

“Nobel prize?” he echoed. “Bit of a geek then, is he?” 

Penny opened her mouth to answer and closed it again fast. She couldn’t explain, not to a guy like Brent. He wouldn’t understand how close she had been to people so far removed from their world of award shows and parties, superficial people and red carpets at every turn.

“No, he wasn’t. He isn’t,” she amended when she finally gave a reply. “He’s... just Sheldon,” she shrugged, thinking of him.

It all felt like such a long time ago. Living in Pasadena across the hall from Leonard and Sheldon. They had always been the smartest guys she ever met, the latter even more so than the former. That had never changed, they still had more intelligence than she had ever seen in another person. What had changed was her relationship with Leonard, and as the others in their little group started to find their happily ever afters, the whole set up of that life seemed to drift away. Penny spent less and less time with those people, she missed them long before she ever left. In a lot of way she had been lucky, getting the career she said she always wanted. Still, she realised now how much this life had become her substitute, a crutch to get her through. What she really wanted was so far away from her, in all kinds of ways. She knew it more in this moment than she had for years.

“I have to go,” she said suddenly, hardly aware she had cut Brent off mid-flow.

Now that she considered a moment, he had probably been talking this whole time and she was supposed to be listening. Penny did care, a little bit, but not much. He looked shocked, started asking if everything was okay, if he’d said something wrong. As if Penny would know, she hadn’t heard a word!

“No,” she shook her head. “You didn’t do anything wrong, sweetie,” she patted his shoulder as she hopped down from her stool.

No longer blinded by the glamour and surprise of his entrance, she saw reality. He was ten years younger than her, at least. Muscle-bound and beautiful, as her ex-boyfriends usually were. Since high school she had dated the jock, the bad boy, the tough guy. It had never really changed, save for Leonard and a couple of the smarter guys she met through him. Penny was well aware that these kind of relationships would never, could never work out. It wouldn’t be Brent’s fault that after a few nights of passion, the spark would fade. That after six months of looking good together in candid shots and magazine shoots, they would realise they had nothing left to talk about and even less in common. This had become Penny’s world, but the longer she lived in it, the more she felt she didn’t truly belong.

“Um, you can have the champagne,” she offered Brent, like a consolation prize, and then she was walking away.

Penny pulled the wrap she wore tighter around her shoulders and pushed her hair off her face. She had been such a fool, but she wouldn’t be again. No more one night stands, no more relationships for the sake of connecting. The press didn’t seem to judge her too harshly, but that wasn’t the problem. She was riding the rim of forty now, and she was just too old for this crap, too jaded to care. A decent TV actor, with a couple of second rate movies to her name, Penny didn’t have to worry about money or company, but that didn’t mean she was happy. It was time to take a good long look at her life before it was too late. Most people would say she had kept her dreams alive, taken aim and made it to stardom. Most people were wrong.

Stepping into the elevator, she smiled at the security man on automatic, no real warmth in her look. She got out her cell and called down to the driver so he knew to bring the car around, then immediately went on to her next call. She had plans to make and they wouldn’t wait until morning, not even for another minute. She thought her happiness was to be found in stardom and fame, but Penny figured out long ago she was fooling herself. It had taken until today, the wonder of an old friend’s dream coming true, that made her admit to herself what she had tried to hide too long. She wasn’t happy and she never would be until she fixed the one major problem in her life. There was a big piece missing, and she needed to put it back if she possibly could, if only he would let her. Penny prayed she wasn’t too late.


	2. Chapter 2

It wasn’t quite as he imagined it, but then Sheldon found that seldom were things exactly as he thought they would be. Science and logical thinking could only predict so much, and even copious research came up short occasionally. One thing Dr Cooper had known to expect on this night was a large volume of people. He had learnt to cope better with crowds over the years, but still didn’t relish the idea of being among them. Whilst many here were peers, colleagues, respected fellow scientists and such, there were plenty that Sheldon considered unworthy of both space and time at such an event. He had come to learn that saying so did him no good, and so kept his mouth closed on the subject. That didn’t mean he wasn’t seething on this inside for much of the event.

He had finally done it, achieved the one goal he had always held in his mind as the ultimate. Dr Sheldon Lee Cooper had come here tonight, to this grand building in Stockholm, Sweden, to collect the Nobel Prize for Physics. He ought to feel complete, content perhaps, but he didn’t. Not entirely, not really. Sheldon ought to be able to put his finger on why and yet every idea he came up with seemed wrong. His friends had not attended, mostly because he hadn’t asked them to. The expense and inconvenience of such a trip for men with wives and children, it would be a logistical nightmare. There was only really his mother to care enough to come, and she had passed years ago now. Still Sheldon mourned her in his way, a good woman who never fully understood him, but never failed to love him every day of his life.

There had never been another to love Sheldon so completely. Some tried, like Amy Farrah-Fowler, but it proved impossible for either side in the end. So here was the famous Nobel laureate, Dr Sheldon Cooper, making his way down the steps of Stockholm City Hall, completely alone.

The press were inside the building, with very few of the less reputable ones outside. The air was cold and crisp in Sweden this time of year, and most especially at this time of night. Sheldon was sure he should be frozen through and through if not for all the time he had spend in the Arctic over the years. The first time seemed so long ago, with colleagues and friends. Howard, Raj, Leonard - they were so far from his life now, with lives of their own and no real room for Sheldon Cooper and his need to make new scientific discoveries above all else.

“Wow, look at you.”

Sheldon started at the sound of her voice, quickly looking up from his feet to meet her eyes. It was all the physicist could do to keep his footing on the slippery steps when he realised it really was Penny standing before him. She hadn’t changed, not really. Despite all the years that had flown by since she left Pasadena for a real shot at an acting career.

“Penny,” he nodded once. “What on Earth are you doing in Sweden?”

“I came to see you,” she smiled brightly, in awe at the sight of her Sheldon in his tuxedo, looking so very handsome.

He was just as she remembered him and at the same time different. That didn’t make any sense, even inside Penny’s head but it was none the less true. God, it was good to see him, so good that she barely knew how to explain. Running at him and hugging him close would certainly prove how much she missed him, but Sheldon would hate that and Penny couldn’t bring herself to ruin a moment that way.

“I’m confused as to how you knew I’d be here,” he shook his head.

“Well, that’s the part where you’re a dummy,” she laughed, even as tears threatened. “I heard you won the Nobel prize, just like you always wanted, so I figured out a way to get a ticket to the banquet thingy, but then filming over-ran on this movie I’m working on, and so I missed my flight and... and I’m sorry, Sheldon.”

Even a guy like him who took every word so literally couldn’t fail to realise than her apology was for so much more than just being late for the ceremony inside Stockholm City Hall. She had been gone from his life too long, making no attempts to contact him, Sheldon was sure. After all, he had continued on at the apartment in Pasadena for several years after she left. He thought about calling her, emailing maybe, at least keeping her up to date with what was happening. He knew the others wouldn’t do it, and yet every time Sheldon thought about making the effort to write, he hardly knew where to begin. Now Penny was here, she looked beautiful, and she had made this supreme effort for him. It was worthy of something he rarely did, Sheldon knew, and so he stepped forward and awkwardly reached out his arms to hug her.

Penny felt tears fill her eyes as she went into Sheldon’s embrace and hugged him back so tight she feared he might break in her grasp. Still, she couldn’t bear to let go a moment sooner than she had to. This was so rare and so special. Sheldon hardly ever hugged, but the few times he had done so it had often as not been with her. For that, Penny always counted herself very lucky and never more so than now.

The way she left and allowed the contact between herself and her old friends to crumble, it wasn’t right. At the time it had seemed easier, especially after her last spectacularly awful break up with Leonard. Everyone could go on without her in happiness and joy. She wouldn’t be missed, she told herself. Maybe she was just selfish and wrong.

“Once again, I’m counting on your guidance as to how long this moment should last,” said Sheldon near her ear, making Penny laugh through a veil of tears as she recalled other times so long go when he said the same thing to her.

“After all this time, a little longer is good,” she whispered back, tightening her grip just a fraction in case he should try to slip away before she was ready.

When they eventually pulled apart, Penny felt silly having to wipe tears from her cheeks, but she couldn’t help it. She had waited way too long to see this man again. Penny wondered if Sheldon thought she was crazy for crying. He told her before that people should only cry when sad, not happy. It seemed as if he read the thoughts from her head as he pulled out his handkerchief from his top pocket and handed it to her.

“Women are so much more complex creatures than I ever realised in my younger days,” he sighed. “I was quite happy living my life under the delusion that tears were purely for sadness, but the females of our species have taught me over time that they are also for happiness, surprise, shock, fear, frankly every emotion under the sun depending on their menstrual cycle and a lack of chocolate.”

Penny wasn’t sure if she were laughing or crying as she listened to him babble on. He might look a little older, a little more distinguished than his gangly self in a Flash T-shirt years ago, but there was no doubting this was exactly the same Sheldon Cooper inside of that suit.

“That’s my guy,” she smiled up at him.

It was more so a surprise that he didn’t deny it and tell her that he belonged to no-one but himself. That they’d have to be at least married for him to be considered hers in any real sense, and even then it would be somewhat inappropriate and archaic. Instead of saying all these things, he just smiled back at her. Penny wasn’t sure if it was the cold or the intensity of his gaze that made her shiver, but either way it felt oddly good.

“Penny, would you do me the honour of accompanying me to eat dinner?” he asked, ever the gentleman as he offered her his arm.

“I’d love to,” she agreed easily, looping her arm through his own. “But didn’t you just eat at a banquet?” she checked, looking back at the city hall with a frown.

“On the contrary, food was served to me, but I did not consume it,” he told her as they headed off, Sheldon giving a prolonged speech about cleanliness, the mixing of food types, and such.

Penny listened to all with supremely rapt attention and a smile that wouldn’t shift. As crazy as it might seem, she had missed all this.

* * *

Penny had expected to feel more when Sheldon told her all that had happened to the friends she left behind, hearing that Leonard was now married with children actually made her smile rather than frown. She was happy for her ex-boyfriend, knowing that he had what he always wanted, a family of his own and a woman that loved and respected him in a way Penny never quite managed to do. He had moved away from Pasadena, as had Howard and Bernadette when they too decided to spawn. That was the bigger surprise for Penny since Bernadette had always been so adamant she didn’t want kids. Clearly her Howie had won her over in the end. Raj had finally grown up and gone out in the world to make his mark. Amy had moved on too, got some grant funding for a big project and gone off into the big wide world. Last Sheldon heard from her she was in the rainforest with somebody named Jules. He seemed completely unaffected by the fact she was gone, but then Sheldon often looked that way about a lot of things, Penny remembered. It didn’t mean that deep down he didn’t feel things just like everybody else. He might come off like a heartless robot to those that didn’t know him. Penny knew better.

“So, where are you these days?” she asked him, picking at the remainder of her meal. “Y’know, when you’re not picking up big flashy awards and thousands of dollars in prize money.”

Sheldon actually looked as if he might blush from her words and her gaze. He used to take praise so well, believing it was always well placed when pushed his way. Time changed people, in all kinds of ways. Penny knew that better than anyone, but she hadn’t quite expected such changes in Sheldon. He was the same in the way he talked about practical things, but almost softer in the way he spoke of friends gone away and family lost. He missed his mother terribly, for all the differences between Momma and her Shellybean.

“I have a small apartment, not far from our previous abodes actually,” he told her. “I couldn’t be comfortable in the old building after everyone was gone. I never fancied myself as the type of person to be lonely but I suppose that in the end I am just a human being in some respects.”

Penny wanted to smile at his semi-joke of an observation, but she couldn’t. Sheldon was alone, and it was only after his friends all upped and left that he had come to realise how much they really meant to him. Penny felt guilty for being the beginning of the end when it came to their group, though it was likely the others would have gone off to live their lives at some point anyway. At least she and Sheldon would’ve had each other if she’d stayed. Who knows what might have happened.

“I get that, the lonely thing,” she told him, making him glance up at her with wide eyes. “I know what you’re gonna say, that I’m never alone, always surrounded by people, but… it’s not the same. They’re not friends, they’re just people I know, people I work with. Even the fans, they don’t know the real me,” she sighed. “Not like my real friends used to.”

She had considered for a moment saying ‘not like you’, but thought better of it. Sheldon had known her before, she shared things with him she hadn’t even told Leonard, but that was a lifetime ago now. Yes, sitting here now talking over things, it did feel like tripping back in time to a certain degree, but they were both different people. They had similarities to their old selves, but after so many years it would be ridiculous to think they were exactly as before. Life had changed them, loneliness had made them think too much, wonder on who and what they were and what they wanted to be, who they wanted to be with.

“Well, you have every reason to have a lot of those fans of yours,” said Sheldon, clearly ignoring her meaning on purpose. “I’ve seen some of your work, and your acting is much improved from when we first met,” he smiled. “You’re actually very accomplished now. One might say almost too good for some of the projects that you take on.”

Penny wasn’t sure how to take that. On the surface, she would just like to think he was being nice, but Sheldon only gave compliments where they were due. Perhaps he really did think her acting was so good these days. Right now, it didn’t matter.

“Do you know how good it is to see you again?” she asked him seriously, with a smile on her lips that seemed to light up the room when Sheldon looked at her then.

He wasn’t one for clichés but where Penny was concerned she really did seem to exude a certain kind of light, even if her being a source of such energy ought to be scientifically impossible without the aid of an electrical device or some kind of radiation exposure. Sheldon shook those thoughts away.

“I should imagine somewhat less overwhelming than it was for me to see you,” he told her.

Penny wasn’t sure how to take that. With Sheldon things were often literal, but it could sound like a compliment or an accusation if taken either of those ways. His smile suggested he wasn’t trying to be mean at least.

“Those days in Pasadena... it feels like a lifetime ago,” she said, leaning back in her seat. “Everything’s changed, we’ve both changed, but... this is still nice, you and me across a table,” she smiled slowly. “I really missed you, Sheldon, believe me, I never thought I would, especially not this badly, but I really did.”

“Contrary to all rational and logical explanation, I also missed you,” he replied, feeling awkward when he realised the approaching waiter overheard those words.

The plates were taken, coffee offered in broken English, which Penny opened her mouth to decline. A yawn came out in place of words and she blushed, covering her face with her hand.

“I am so sorry,” said Penny as soon as the waiter was dismissed by Sheldon, with a reminder to put the cost of dinner on his hotel bill. “I guess between the flight over and the time difference...”

“I understand,” Sheldon nodded. “Are you staying in this hotel?” he asked, perhaps conversationally or perhaps with more meaning behind his words.

Penny thought it was more likely the former than the latter, and yet, there was something just a little different about Sheldon tonight. Sure, he looked more adult, less skinny and young in the face, but it was more than that, he was comfortable with himself and with her. He didn’t flinch at every little thing or complain about so many things. He was Sheldon 2.0 or perhaps a higher number. Penny hadn’t been around to see the natural progression he must have gone through over the years.

“Um, no, not this hotel,” said Penny, shaking her head free of other thoughts and the tiredness creeping in and making matters worse.

She rifled in her purse for her reservation, her assistant had taken her luggage over and was waiting for her wherever she was staying. In amongst the rummaging round she caught sight of her watch. It was way past midnight and she could hardly believe how long she had Sheldon had sat here talking. No wonder the waiter had seemed a little put out - the restaurant was all but empty save for the two of them.

“Why haven’t we been kicked out?” she asked looking around slowly.

“This is a rather exclusive hotel,” Sheldon told her. “If you can afford to be here, I suspect the staff consider you worth staying up into the night for. Also, there’s a good chance they recognise a celebrity when they see one. I believe the phrase is usually ‘big in Japan’ but in your case, there’s every chance you’re big in Sweden.”

“Not as big as you, Dr Cooper, winner of the Nobel prize for physics,” she said then, a little teasing in her tone but not as much as she’d meant for there to be. “I was blown away when I read that you’d won. I mean, I knew you could do it but... it finally happened.”

There were tears coming to Penny’s eyes all over again. She felt so stupid, so oddly unworthy sat across from this man who she cared for so much, who had been so lonely so long. She was a source of both their suffering, and she felt it more now than ever.

“And I should really go,” she repeated, getting up from her seat so quickly she almost knocked herself right back down.

She turned to go, not even thinking about whether it was right to say goodbye or see you later. After all this time, and she was about to run out on a person she cared for again. Penny was thinking better of it when Sheldon actually stopped her, calling her name and reaching for her hand. He didn’t touch people, not in the past, he would avoid it whenever possible. Now his grip on her hand was so tight and his gaze so intense as she looked back and up into his eyes.

“Would you... Do you want to stay with me tonight?” he asked plainly, as he always asked everything.

Penny was confused and it showed on her face. There wasn’t time to ask what he meant or why he was saying this to her. The next moment his free hand was at her face, easing her closer, and then his lips were on hers in a sweet kiss. Penny felt as if she lost consciousness in that brief but special moment. Her eyes closed of their own accord and then opened again to Sheldon’s expression of hope and perhaps a little fear at what he had done.

“Sheldon,” she said, swallowing hard. “I... Are you asking me to...?” she couldn’t even finish the question.

She couldn’t sleep with Sheldon, that would be crazy, and he would never ask her to because that would be the only thing crazier! Still, if he did ask, she would do it. Honestly, she wanted him to be asking so that she could.

“I honestly don’t know what I’m asking exactly,” he admitted. “It’s a strange sensation for me to realise that for once in my life I really don’t know something. All I can say is, I’d like you to stay here, with me.”

Penny couldn’t breath, couldn’t’ve spoken a word if she wanted to. She managed a steady nod of her head and a watery smile, as Sheldon pulled on her hand a little and led her to the stairs. Her head was on his shoulder before they ever reached his door, and Penny knew no matter what did or didn’t happen tonight, this was where she belonged, right beside Sheldon Cooper, always.


	3. Chapter 3

Penny thought she already switched off her cell but it made a liar of her when it started dancing across the table on vibrate. For a moment she considered ignoring it, but knew that wouldn’t be right. A quick check of the screen showed her it was her agent. She thought he would stop calling after a while and believe her when she said she was taking a break now her contract was up on Paradise City. No more soap operas for this girl, or movies, or TV interviews. Penny was officially off the market for a while, but her agent just didn’t seem to have grasped that yet. She switched off the phone, apologising despite the fact nobody could hear her. She had better things to do than explain herself all over again, especially right now.

“Penny!” a voice called to her, tapping three times on the window.

This repeated twice more as she smiled and hurried with pouring the wine.

“Yes, I’m coming!” she called back, laughter in her voice as she grabbed up the two glasses and rushed across the room.

She had to use her butt to get through the screendoor and close it behind her. Sheldon’s attention was focused solely on the view, and what a view it was to behold. Penny had been a city girl for years now, and a well-seasoned traveller thanks to her acting career. She almost forgot how much she loved rolling fields and the wide open sky spread out before her.

“You almost missed it,” said Sheldon as Penny sat down on the porch swing beside him and moved in close.

He looked her way and was once again struck by the beauty of her. Sheldon never thought to miss people when they went away. He was happy in his solitude much of the time, but Penny’s absence had hit him much harder than he ever could have expected. Finding her again after so long, reconnecting as they had, it was something he never planned. He certainly couldn’t explain with any reasonable logic of science how they had landed here together like this, but he wouldn’t change it for the world.

“Now who’s going to miss it?” asked Penny with a smile when she realised he was staring at her, not that she really minded.

“Perhaps I have found the one thing in the universe more beautiful than a sunset,” he told her, planting a quick kiss on her lips.

He was getting a little more confident with that, Penny noted, as they both looked towards the horizon then. Sheldon was no expert when it came to women. Of all the topics in the world he had studied and learnt well, interaction with the opposite sex was not one that he grasped, not for years. Recently he had made progress, and Penny felt she could congratulate herself for that particular education.

It hadn’t happened too quickly. That night at the hotel in Stockholm when he asked her to stay, Penny had wondered where it would lead. Somehow she knew it was okay no matter how fast or slow they chose to take things. It was difficult to know what to expect from Sheldon. In years gone by she would’ve known for sure that he would never make a move, but the kiss he laid on her in the lobby had taken her breath away.

Up in his room they had sat a distance apart on the bed, sharing stories, catching up. Somewhere along the line she broke into the minibar and even convinced Sheldon to join her in a drink. Conversation had devolved into a strange game of truth or dare, though dare had been completely abandoned in favour of sharing secrets.

Sheldon’s admittance that he missed her when she was gone was a surprise, and led to Penny confessing the same. Of all those she left behind, he was the one she most regretted losing contact with. Though they had never been anything but friends before, without any real words or actions taken they seemed to both be sure that what existed been them now was so much more.

At some late hour Penny realised Sheldon had fallen asleep whilst she was recounting some long and ultimately uninteresting tale from her life on set of a soap he had never even really seen. She had crawled up the bed and lay down beside him, leaning over to place a chaste kiss on his lips. She fell asleep beside him, and woke hours later with his arm around her waist. Spooning with Sheldon, it had seemed bizarre, but in the best and sweetest way possible. To Penny it was a definite sign that he never wanted her to go away again.

“That is beautiful,” she sighed, glad to feel Sheldon’s arm around her again now. “But is it really so great for you?” she asked curiously. “I mean, you know all the science behind it, why the colours are there, all the stats about the sun...”

“Knowledge doesn’t stop a person from admiring beauty, Penny,” he told her gently, eyes still fixed on the illuminated sky. “Though it is true that thinking in too much detail about a situation can lead to overlooking some wonderful opportunities or the most simple of solutions to a problem,” he considered.

Nothing proved that point as much as his situation with Penny. When she left town, things just never felt the same for Sheldon. He blamed everything, including each of his friends, the changes made at one of his favourite restaurants, even the extra fluoride the water company decided to pump through the faucet! Never once had Sheldon allowed himself to even consider the possibility that he felt so out of sorts because of one single person missing from his life, not for many years.

When Penny had appeared in Stockholm on the night of the Nobel Prize Winners Banquet, Sheldon had been stunned. He had followed her career, off and on over the years. Penny had become quite a fine actress, but as he had told her then and still believed, many of the projects she took part in were far beneath her.

Their dinner together had been pleasant. Sheldon found Penny hadn’t changed so very much, except for being a little more mature. She did not cuss so freely or drink with such a fervour. Penny had become an evolved version of herself, with shorter hair and an even kinder smile. Sheldon fell in love with her all over again in the space of a few hours, and though he was aware of it, he hadn’t a clue what to do about it.

When Penny tried to leave, he only knew he had to stop her, knowing that one evening in her company after so long apart simply wasn’t enough. He had kissed her, the strangest of experiences, and yet Sheldon could think of no other way to express himself somehow. It had not been awful, it had been... different. Though Sheldon had gotten over a few of his more extreme OCD tendencies or germ phobias, he did not exactly go around laying his lips on just anybody. Penny was special, she always had been, she always would be.

Somehow they had come to fall asleep together in his hotel room. Alcohol had been involved, and a lot of talking about inane things that Sheldon would’ve found so very disinteresting if it weren’t Penny sharing stories. He told her of his life these days, details he was sure she would find boring and yet she watched and listened with rapt attention throughout. She spoke of her acting career, famous people she had met, many of which Sheldon had never heard of, but he had learnt enough to know it was more polite not to admit as much. He nodded along, just listening to the pleasantly familiar lilt of her voice. It was hypnotic, and he was happily lost in it for hours.

In the morning when he woke, she was already gone. There was a note on the nightstand, an apology for leaving so abruptly, but her flight home was already booked and she simply had to catch it. There was something in there about a filming schedule, but Sheldon couldn’t recall now what it had said, he hadn’t read it properly even at the time. There had been an uneasy feeling in his stomach that he already knew was not the fault of anything he had consumed. Penny was the reason, for so much more than he could ever explain.

It had taken two days for Sheldon to come to a very important decision. He had achieved much in his life, almost all of the goals he might realistically reach by this age. It made him consider other options, things he never thought he needed to include in his plans before. Penny coming back into his life taught him a lesson he never knew he needed until it happened. He needed her. More than that, he wanted her.

Sheldon’s superior intellect got him through security without a problem, and suddenly he was knocking on Penny’s dressing room door. He resisted his familiar pattern on purpose, desperate as he was to surprise her. That he knew he had achieved when she opened the door and her hand shot straight to her mouth. The hug he received in the very next moment was just exactly what he wanted. For a man who had always resisted human contact wherever possible, that was quite the revelation for both of them.

On that occasion, it had been her that initiated a kiss. Sheldon hadn’t minded one bit, though he was aware that in this one area of their relationship above all others, Penny would forever be the more experienced. She ought to have something she excelled in more than Sheldon did, he supposed, and that she certainly did.

It was strange to think about how Penny had been the missing piece from his life all this time. Sheldon hadn’t even known there was something lacking until he saw her again, then it was suddenly abundantly clear.

In the space of a week, they had plans to get away. Penny’s contract at Paradise City was up for renewal within the month and she refused the offer that came in, regardless the offered fee. She had the chance to be with Sheldon, and he the opportunity to be with her. Neither was willing to give that up, not now.

This house of theirs was bought quickly but not without research. Sheldon had done all the calculations and necessary checks. Ultimately though, Penny had said it just had to be this particular building that they made their home, thanks to the beautifully amazing views from the back porch.

One day, Penny knew she might go back to acting. Sheldon was bound to get bored too and want a new project to sink his teeth into, but that was okay. All either of them knew for certain was that this was the only place they wanted to be, together always. The porch swing shifted back and forth very gently, and Penny felt her eyes closing. Sheldon pulled the blanket up over the both of them and kissed the top of her head.

“I love you, Sheldon,” she whispered in the ever-increasing dark.

“And I love you, Penny,” he promised, letting his eyes fall shut too.

Finally, though it had taken so long to het here, they had both found the place they truly belonged. Right here under a beautiful sky, with their arms around each other, and soft music playing on the radio. It didn’t get better than this - it felt exactly like home.


End file.
